Stabbing victim’s mother tells of impact

The mother of a teenager found stabbed to death in Killarney almost three years ago talked yesterday of the devastating effect the death of her eldest son has had on her family.

Lotte Lyne, mother of Stephen Lyne, was allowed give her victim impact statement although the young man who is before the court for sentencing in relation to a conspiracy to harm charge did not kill her son and was not charged in relation to the killing.

The perpetrator of the stabbing was never charged, the trial heard.

Judge Carroll Moran, after hearing passionate pleas from defence counsel John O’Sullivan on his client’s behalf, adjourned sentencing to this morning.

Mr O’Sullivan said false rape allegations had been made, the perpetrator had died without being charged, and the only one charged with anything was a young immigrant whose only relative here was his mother, who had assisted gardaí and who was expected to be a chief witness until in late 2010 when the perpetrator of the stabbing had died.

Martin Ollo, originally from Estonia but living in Killarney for eight years, and with an address at Ballydribbeen, Killarney, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring with Shane Regan of Dromkerry, Fossa, Killarney on consecutive dates — 16/17 June, 2009 and 17/18 June, 2009 to assaulting Lyne causing him harm.

The body of Lyne was found on a grass margin on Ross Road, yards from his home at Castle Falls, at around 1.30am on June 18, 2009, by teenagers. He had died from a single stab wound to the back.

Three weeks ago a jury found Ollo guilty on count one of the conspiracy to cause harm, but acquitted him on count two.

Ollo had no previous convictions. He had left school before completing his junior cert but has since returned to education and entered third level, studying for computer science degree.

He had played no active part in the killing, the trial was told by the prosecution.

Ollo, Lyne, the late Shane O’Regan and others were part of a group of teens hanging around together, socialising a lot, smoking cannabis, and under-age drinking, the trial heard.

From the outset the trial was told it was Shane Regan, then also 17, who had stabbed Lyne in the back in a revenge attack. Regan himself died a year later in a fall in a house in Tralee. He believed Lyne had raped his girlfriend of the time, Jessica Klok, the previous bank holiday weekend.

It was only during the Ollo trial that Ms Klok withdrew this rape allegation for the first time, saying she had told “a disgusting lie.”

‘I lost my precious son...our hearts are broken forever’

Lotte Lyne, mother of Stephen Lyne, clutching a large framed photograph of her dead son, told the sentencing hearing yesterday of the devastating impact of Stephen’s death on his five siblings, and on herself and his father Denis.

The reading of the victim impact statement had been strongly objected to by counsel for Martin Ollo, John O’Sullivan. Ollo has been found guilty of a conspiracy to cause harm charge. The objection was over-ruled by Judge Carroll Moran.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “My client is not responsible for the death of Stephen Lyne. This is not admissible. I accept there has been a horrendous event but my client did not cause it, nor was he ever charged with being involved in the death of Lyne.”

Ms Lyne said she and her family had been handed down “a life sentence.” It had been “a senseless, vicious attack” and they could not understand it.

“Whatever the outcome of this court case, the truth remains that my son Stephen was brutally taken from us, never to return. We, his family, have been left with a sentence of our own. It is longer than any life sentence that could be handed down by any court...our hearts are completely broken forever,” she said.

Two and a half years later the heartache of Stephen’s loss remained, Ms Lyne said.

She detailed the effect on Stephen’s siblings. Their youngest child Benjamin, aged 11, had recurring nightmares, and woke up “trembling with unspoken fears.”

Mathias was a 17-year-old who has cried silently; Jonas, 16, had to grow up before his time and without the guidance of his older brother.

Stephen and his sister Sofie, who was only a year older than him, were very close and had been like twins. “The loss of Stephen has been devastating for her.”

“Denis, my husband, not only lost his son, but came on the lifeless body of his son on the grass margin, lying cold and ambulances flashing.

There were no adequate words for how she felt.

“I have lost my precious, precious son,” she said.

“The emptiness is like a jigsaw with a piece missing, nothing will ever change that.”